Rhapsodies in the Dark
by Mitsima
Summary: Leave the gods alone and they have nothing to do but conspire. A scouting party from the Western Army is found mysteriously murdered, and the lone survivor, Shien, is placed in Tenpou's care. Takes place before Kenren is transfered.
1. Ties you don't see

**_Rhapsodies in the Dark_**

by Mitsima

11/27/03

Author's Note: Pure experimental…purely purely experimental.

*******************

Tenpou listlessly stared at the smoke rising from the cigarette between his lips, Goujun's report fading into the back of his mind with a repetitive constancy similar that of a heartbeat. Shocking red eyes embeded in a sea of whiteness scrutinized the entire table of military officers, finally landing on Goujun's own direct subordinate whose mouth was tugged into an uncharacteristic frown. Tenpou was elsewhere. Uncharacteristically, Goujun let it drop. And the heartbeat continued to pulse as before.

"The bodies were found in the Shouryin foothills..."

The meeting was pushing two hours and thirty minutes; long for a military briefing, yet the urgency of the situation required an immediate and thorough analysis of the circumstances surrounding the incident. Tenpou ran his fingers along the edge of the embossed pages of the written report in front of him. They were warm, like the sunlight that slashed through the windows leaving a pool of reddish glow on the smooth mahogany table. It was easy to let his mind wander away from the unpleasant matters upon which his commander was elaborating with practiced stoicism. 

He particularly enjoyed looking at the facial expressions of the surrounding officers. Who they choose to sit next to was of no consequence. Who they chose to glance at (if not the speaker) during particularly vital parts of briefings revealed little tidbits that confirmed certain rumors which circulated throughout the lower ranks. If the mention of money ever came up, A-san and B-san would exchange satisfied looks. _Well, so they **were** working together in that embezzlement scheme against secretary such-and-such._ For no particular reason at all C-san would wink at A-san while A-san looked down and away. _Though I was never one to question an officer's choice of bed partners..._

And then now...

"According to Under-Heaven outpost officers, the eight-man scouting team of the 17th regiment of the Western Army seemed to be attacked at approximately 8:00 p.m. of two nights past while on a mission to map out new navigational routes through the Shouryin foothills," Goujun continued. "When they did not return at the assigned time at the allocated rendezvous, a separate recovery team was sent out and was then able to find the missing soldiers; although not in a state we were expecting. 

_Clawed.__ Decapitated. Disemboweled. Slashed in half. Tenpou added mentally, his thoughts returning to the meeting. _We're all soldiers here. No need to lapse into the babying euphemisms meant for the soft skinned bureaucrats, sir.__

Tenpou shook his head and pursed his lips. 

"The initial impression was that they were all murdered by the remaining demon tribe of the area."

"So are you saying that it _wasn't_ the Shouryin breed that was responsible?" a brusque voice drawled out from next to Tenpou, dragging him out of his gory reverie. He gave the speaker a sidelong glance. _Oh yes, that loud one from the Eastern Army. What was his name..._

"I was not suggesting that at all," Goujun clipped back, his claws digging slightly into the table. "You misunderstand. We are quite positive the Shouryin are responsible, but I was making reference to the losses. Our doctors were able to save one of them."

Tenpou's head snapped up. And at that moment, at the corner of his eye, Tenpou saw the Commander of Northern Armies give his own commander a look so full of bitter disdain that he wouldn't have been surprised if the other man started to sweat poison. 

_Now **this is interesting...**_

Goujun, ever cool, ever calm, like an ancient mountain, did not look back and instead turned his attention to Tenpou. 

"You were saying?"

_Was I saying anything?_ He didn't remember if he had. He remembered that he was wondering something, but whether or not that something had escaped his lips- perhaps that was the effect of the grief finally creeping into his mind...where what was said and thought had no relevance at all in a given moment due to one's submission to a quiet pain resulting in a certain apathy to little things like what is expressed externally and what is guarded internally. Sort of like-

Like being turned inside out.

"With reference to the losses suffered …" Tenpou found himself repeating in a tone so apathetic he could have been talking about this month's funding. "Might I inquire the identity of the survivor?"  

"The archer." _Oh. _With that, the field marshal gave an impassive nod and leaned back in his chair, his eyes turning back towards the window. Goujun looked away with that same tight-lipped expression of _I'm-aware-of-your-loss-but-be-a-soldier-and-swallow-it_.

_No. _Tenpou ground out the but his cigarette and took out a fresh one. _It wasn't __him. He was always a brash one anyways. And too young. _ 

The meeting adjourned. The commander of the Northern Armies slipped away wordlessly, not unnoticed by a certain marshal and a certain general who had come to the same conclusion without having ever taken notice of each other. 

Goujun momentarily pulled him to the side as he was leaving the room. "Take charge of the survivor. We need him alive to testify." _Cold as a block of ice but thank goodness not as dense..._

The rest of the officers murmurred, both disgruntled and humored by the situation presented to them in exactly two hours, 46 minutes, 27 seconds. Tenpou tried to head out before he could have time to hear what would obviously be said, but sometimes (and he hated himself for it) knowledge was not enough to quench curiosity. He couldn't help it. One step out of the meeting room and he closed the door partially.  

"Who was heading the scouting party?"

"Major Yoshitsune, I believe."

"Ah. That makes sense- while they got themselves in such a ditch."

"Eh?"

"Our Tenpou Gensui's younger brother. Nothing good coming from that poor rut of a family."

"A bit harsh of you, isn't it?"

"Hah. Well if the same thing didn't happen to the father..."  

They all jumped as they heard the door slam shut. A pregnant silence ensued, then was suddenly cut by wry clapping and a mocking whistle. 

"You'd think people like you would be practiced in keeping your mouths shut," a general  commented, half tipsy, half pissed as he nursed a cup of sake. "Just 'cause all of you have shit to hide doesn't mean you gotta badmouth a man's family. Nobles. Nothing good coming from that rat race."

"Be silent, General Kenren. Practice what you preach lest your lack of sense comes back to haunt you." chided Tentei's military liaison.

Kenren snorted. "Silence, as I said before, is for people who are hiding shit. And gossip's for people still piling it on." _Argue if you don't agree._


	2. The darkness was strange

**The Darkness was Strange**

The darkness was strange. It was frustrating. The light existed, there was color, there was a heaven, yet Shien could not see any of it despite being present among them. Settling in his bones was the resignation that he was truly ripped from the womb of existence, that he was an unfulfilled ghost living among the contented ones who delighted in the soft pinkness of the cherry blossoms, the endless sky of heaven, the fresh visual coolness of the water gardens and marble pillars…that between that beautiful world and himself was an impenetrable wall of estranged darkness condemning him to an eternity of alienation. 

Then so be it. What was he now? What was his world? It was the silken sheets that hugged his body, the itchy bandages that covered his scars. The rustling of the curtains as the sun warmed breeze wafted into the room. Tea that lacked the vital warmth present in watching the steam rise above the transparent surface. Shien's world was a snowy pitch dark night, the coldness incessantly layering and lining his plane of consciousness until the soldier could almost swear that his moist breath froze instantly after leaving his body. So his voice, like the rest of his entire world- the bandages, the sheets- stayed close to his body…only for himself, as a constant reminder of a continuing existence. 

And ever closer to his lips and farther from the world around him hovered the name of the dear one who could not be saved; the mutilated body under which Shien was found. It was a name he could no longer remember, even though in the middle of sleep it grazed his memory, evoking an ache that could never be relived except by his own shameful action. In that aching darkness, he desperately prayed no one looked on as he tried to remember a face, a name, a voice, a touch; any fading image to become the object of either hate or love. He had only himself. But when his own self was not enough and the darkness gave him nothing save for the memories of bloody battlefields and cherry blossoms… there was nothing to be done. He prayed for various other darknesses to overcome him- he considered unconsciousness-he considered death- but was always taken by neither fate. 

Shien hadn't counted how many days he had been bed-ridden. His sense of time had been totally erased, having been formerly based on the rise and set of the sun. Day in and day out, but there was no day anymore. And no sun. No direction. No arrows. No bow. No function. His utility was gone, as was everything else beyond utility. Logically speaking, that everything else was a single someone else. That was all he knew, but who that someone was remained beyond the reaches of his memory.  

If he thought about it long enough, let his thoughts thin out until there was nothing but the feeling of sheets around him and nothing but the light smell of hot tea at his bedside…if he slowed his breathing…it brought the sensation of evaporation. Of not-thereness. Thoughtlessness, but momentarily. He was stretched thin, thin as the air around him until Shien's body forced itself to breathe and he was left in a state of utter daze. 

Then through the daze, one or two memories dripping through, precarious as raindrops running off the edge of a leaf.

As the world grew increasingly still, Shien noticed footsteps punctuating his train of non-thought and grounding him back to heaven. They neared and the bed sunk slightly at the foot. "You may be blind, but you fake sleep rather badly. And by the looks of it, sleep takes to _you_ rather badly." A voice floated out to him; then that feeling of so many nights returned. Shien shoved the feeling away with disdain. No. This was different. This was a stranger. 

"For someone alive, you fake life rather badly as well." Shien replied calmly.

"Excuse me?"

"One who walks like a ghost," he continued coldly, sinking deeper into the down pillows of the bed. Shien reached for the cup of oolong tea by his bed and took a sip, enjoying the minimal warmth it provided. "Or at least attempts to make his presence as such…has questionable business. What do you want?"

There was a thoughtful pause at the other end of the bed. Fingers softly tapped against the mattress near his foot. "Want and duty are two separate obligations- one to one's own body, the other to an extraneous entity. Would it ease your fears to know I am not here to satisfy the former?"

Suddenly a voice started echoing in the deeper recesses of his mind, like the howling of wind resonating through a sinuous cave. Ghosts indeed. 

_"Is there such a thing as dishonorable duty, Shien? I would  like to think so. What celestial duty would have us whore our consciences away to some insane general? I can see you don't agree, but still…Shien, we're killing people. Do you not see it? This isn't duty. This is pay-off."_

"Even duty has its downfalls. Even gods have ulterior motives. Duty, just like you, is questionable." Shien shot back, and was surprised to find the words falling from his mouth with the weight of lead. His head lolled forward and that feeling…the extreme thinness of existence… he was feeling it again.

"Yes, I must admit, I am quite questionable. What surprises me is that you still sipped your tea when I could have very well slipped something in it…which I did."

As clouds seemed to form around his thoughts, Shien's mind desperately flailed to grasp what little he had of consciousness. He opened his mouth, but words refused to form. He could not even curse his own stupidity, this time more of a flaw of mental blindness than physical.  

"Consider it what you will," said other calmly, bringing a hand up against Shien's neck to check his pulse. "because it doesn't change the fact that you will be under my care from now until your presence is requested in trial and investigation. Goujun will have my head if you aren't healthy by the time you are called for."

It was at that point he found out who this stranger was, because the dragon king held direct contact and authority over one man alone, and trusted only one man in this military…

Something…a sound…behind them made Tenpou jump. And as the world around him began to dissolve once again, Shien felt the hand at his throat move softly to the back of his neck where it gently pulled him up…like a baby…to meet a comforting shoulder that smelled of old books, cologne, cigarettes and cedar. A familiar smell, he thought. It brought him back a singular memory, and it was enough to fall asleep by. 

_I think I remember you, but it wasn't you, I don't think, but someone like you...but I can't recall, I just can't. _

_There was always that rumor Kasei took a lover. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the one. _

_******_

_Oh. You again._ Kenren stood dumbly and stared into the dark room, making out silhouettes that seemed to waver in the dimness- to the point where you'd question whether they were actually there or if they were merely tricks the eye was playing due to alcohol, sleepiness, or maybe a little bit of both. From the point of view of the silhouettes, Kenren was a silhouette as well, framed by the eye-straining light of the hallway. All was quiet as silhouette faced silhouette and the reflection off a pair of spectacles flashed back at the general of the eastern army.

Kenren didn't move, contemplating on what to do. _Asshole's reading my mind. _Then again, _Is__ he the **real** asshole who's trying to screw us all over or is he just a plain 'ol hey-what-a-coincidence-we're-on-the-same-track type asshole who doesn't have a clue?_

Kenren had his gun. It could be handy. But it wasn't loaded. That _wasn't_ handy, but it's not like the guy in the room knew the difference between a loaded and unloaded gun. 

_Oh what the hell, kidnapping's kidnapping. An officer's duty is duty plain and simple...quoted from the military manual page whatever, paragraph I-don't-give-a-fuck._

He pulled out the gun, then stopped short. There were voices. Footsteps behind him. Closer. Just down the corridor…Closer… Closer…

And before they rounded the corner, the taishou locked the door from inside and slammed it shut. "Dammit!!!!!" he grunted, causing the approaching party to speed up to a run. 

"Kenren Taishou, what is the meaning of this?" demanded the Commander of the Northern Armies, his face reddening. 

Kenren abruptly saluted. "My sources reported to me that the survivor is still in danger of possible attack. I came here to verify the health of the soldier, but found the door locked, sir. I think," he paused before raising his voice. _You better hear me, asshole_. "I think someone else is in there, _Commander Takemura._"

Takemura twitched, only slightly, his face pulled between relief and consternation. "Break down the door! That's an order!"

"Yes, sir!" A few good kicks and the door caved in with the screech of bending wood. 

There was nobody within. And on the floor, a pool of blood.

The taishou blanched. "What the hell…" _Don't tell me I pinned the wrong guy…_

"Taishou." Said Takemura sternly, eyeing the room warily. "Report back to your commander."

"Shall I send out a search party?"

"That will not be necessary. Given the state of the soldier at the time of kidnapping, there is a minimal chance of a second survival."

"But what about the little chance that he's still alive?"

"If you can find him in time for the formal investigative trial, I will petition for a raise in your salary, Kenren Taishou. But," he continued. "…as it stands, the man is dead on the record until proven otherwise. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

_You'd want that wouldn't you, asshole_? Kenren saluted once more, turned on his heel and walked out the room. _No question about it. You, sir, are **it.**_

Weird. That was the only word he could conjure up to explain the feeling. Starting from second he saw that guy in the room, even though no name or title came up in his head to categorize the guy, even though he didn't remember his face or _anything_, Kenren felt this invisible tug from inside his body. Something tingled right in the middle of his forehead, in the middle of his chest…like between him and the other person there, the air parted and _something_ whispered in his ear _something_ he didn't understand but actually strangely did because in the end Kenren was doing something he wasn't planning at all to do. He just _did_ it. 

He couldn't really understand how the feeling was during those bizarre few seconds. 

Sorta like…

Like that short moment between pointing and shooting. Blankness, affirmation of the act to come, affirmation of the consequences, resignation, hello and goodbye. Nothing, but a tightness of will telling you, _yeah, it's supposed to be this way_. Sort of like… 

But gods are beyond that destiny thing. 


	3. Forced Alliance

**Rhapsodies in the Dark: Chapter 3**

Note: I did a major re-working of the story, necessitating the deletion of old chapters 3 and 4. Sorry for any inconvenience that might have caused. Please forget the deleted chapters if time hadn't done so already. I hope you enjoy my replacements.

"They say you don't like to follow orders."

Zenon smirked. "Well if that's what they say..." _Then it's true, I guess._

"They say you drink too much and smoke too much and curse like an Under Heaven human."

"No more than the next man, sir."

"They say you have a reputation for excessive violence."

"No more than the next soldier, sir."

"They say," Tenpou continued, looking at the file in front of him, then at the soldier slouching in the chair on the other side of his office desk. "That you frequently visit the Under Heaven _without_ authorization. I'm afraid that such a thing can get you convicted and punished for such violations. Perhaps if I were to say there were witnesses..."

At this point, the smirk on Zenon's face disappeared only to be replaced by a pallid look of disdain that he didn't even attempt to hide. "Can't believe anything you hear these days," _Whoever it was who saw me, I'll slit his throat and get drunk to celebrate his death as I kick his corpse off a cliff._ "Sir."

"Okay. Then why do you know the Under Heaven's geography so well?"

Zenon narrowed his eyes at his superior. He felt as if he were trying to cross a mine field and the Marshal was safely on the other side tossing rocks at the ground beside him. "No more than..."

"Incorrect!" Tenpou interrupted. "Much much more than the next soldier. Why is that?"

Zenon grit his teeth. "I look at the maps _really_ really hard, sir."

"And given what they say about your astounding accuracy as a scout on the field, your eyes must really _really_ hurt." As he said this, Tenpou flipped through pages and pages of reports. "As much as I hate losing a soldier with such a good record, I regret to say that you are very _very_ discharged. Turn in your uniform to me by nightfall and stay in your quarters until further notice so to avoid the humiliation of a public arrest. The council and I will decide your punishment by the coming week. I'll try to reduce your sentence as much as possible, but..."

"What the fuck?!" Zenon jumped in his chair and slammed his fists onto the mahogany desk, rattling the books that were precariously balanced there. "Okay. Fine. I've gone down. I've gone down a lot, without anybody's fucking permission. So what? I still worked for you, don't I? I haven't _once_ led you or your men down the wrong path. Doesn't that at least merit me getting a...a trial or something fair like that?"

This amused Tenpou greatly. When people had buttons to push, he made it a point to push and push hard. "Who says heaven's fair?"

"Everybody!" In frustration, he ran a hand through his hair and resisted the impulse to yank them off his head. "Haven't you ever heard of divine justice, _sir_?" He spat out the honorific like poison. "People here seem to use that word a lot." He couldn't think straight. The only thought in his mind at that point was that he _had_ to go back. He had to go back. He couldn't just leave her there...and in her...condition_. _And if they found out about _that_, then...Zenon couldn't bear the thought of his child as a prisoner of heaven. He'd kill the entire court, even Tentei himself to make sure it never happened.

"Can't believe anything you hear these days."

"Go to hell."

"If I go, then I'm bringing you with me." Tenpou said evenly.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you've incriminated yourself, soldier." The marshal threw the reports on the desk for Zenon to peruse. But they weren't reports, only blank sheets of paper. "There were no witness reports. Only rumors. And while I usually pay no heed to them, this one concerning your trips to the Under Heaven caught my attention. Know that in a direct confession to a high officer such as myself, due process isn't necessary."

"I..." Zenon paled, white as the sheets in front of him.

"I won't tell anybody," Tenpou cut in. "and I won't discharge you. But I need you to do something for me."

"And what might that be?"

"See that door?" The marshal pointed to the entrance to his bedroom. It was closed.

"Open it."

Zenon obeyed and rigidly got up. He was mentally cursing as he walked the entire ten-foot distance to the door and he was still at it when he swung it open. Just as quickly, he slammed it shut.

"Holy fuck! You, sir, are in a shitload of trouble. That's the survivor who disappeared from the infirmary. I don't know what game you're playing, but if you're caught, it's going to send you straight to the executioner's block."

"Welcome to the boat. Please take your oar and do as you're told. There are only two of us rowing and if you stop, we sink, understood?"

"What do you want me to do?"

_I guess you are just unlucky, Zenon. But fate had it that I heard your name at just the right moment. Now you have to be subject to the plans of an eccentric marshal, knowing little about the circumstances save for what your orders are. A bit of a black hole, isn't it? Dark. Well even the sun shining over heaven casts shadows..._

Tenpou's final words at their meeting lingered in his mind as he walked away from the cluttered study. It took guts to do what that guy was doing, Zenon admitted, and he had been waiting for an assignment like this for some time; but something churned in his gut about the entire situation. Sitting there with Tenpou, and with that guy in the other room, Zenon had the feeling that the air around them vibrated in anticipation for something to materialize out of the blue.

Tenpou Gensui was insane. Looking into the man's eyes made time seem to close in around him, but despite all that Zenon couldn't help but feel a profound respect for him; if not a little fear.

This from someone who didn't fear the wrath of heaven.

"Just when I thought," he said to himself as he lit a cigarette. "Everyone here was boring..."

_Blood._ That was the first thing that came to mind when Shien woke up. And he must have said it too, because the first thing he heard was Tenpou's soft voice reassuring him.

"Not yours."

"Ah." He didn't ask. He simply laid there indulging himself in the feeling of the pillow, soft as the voice he heard, and tainted with the smell of cigarette smoke. By the warmth of the sun filtering in, Shien assumed it to be late afternoon. Sunset. With the moon flowers cracking open just enough to release a subtle fragrance.

"So, do you remember anything yet?" Tenpou inquired as cheerily as possible, as if they were merely two friends who had a night of excessive drinking.

Shien groaned. His throat was parched, burning almost. "You make it sound so simple. Hurts. My throat hurts." It must have been the poison.

"Here. Drink this."

Feeling the ceramic cup at his lips, Shien balked. "They say humans are the only creatures who trip on the same stone twice. You drink it first." With that, he shoved the cup back towards Tenpou who shrugged and drank a sip.

"I don't know how that will help you any." Shien knew Tenpou was right, but it was a necessary show. Marshal or not, Shien didn't trust him. He didn't have the heart to trust anybody anymore. "But if the knowledge is of any comfort to you, know that Goujun needs you alive."

"It's all the same, I guess." he said, and drank. "There's something in this."

"I never said it was water." Tenpou reminded him with a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "But it isn't poison either."

"It tastes good."

"Apparently only soldiers who stay Down There a lot acquire a taste for it. Tastes like poison to me."

Shien chuckled, but was struck silent when a glimmer of a memory fluttered through his mind with the randomness of a lost kite. _He said the same thing the first time we tried it._ But it came out in pieces. Foggy too. "We all drank it. Every night. Except for him, at first. He only wanted wine but when our stock ran out, he learned to like it."

"He?" There was no doubt that Shien was referring to Kasei without even knowing it. His throat tightened.

"I don't know." Shien replied honestly, setting the cup aside and lying back down. He was getting tired again, probably because the drink had alcohol in it and he was still suffering from significant blood loss.

They settled into a stuffy silence each one wanting to say more but nothing ever came out.

Then, "Wolves."

Having given up any notions of forceful interrogation, Tenpou had started dozing in his chair next to the bed. "What?"

"Wolves. Dying wolves." Shien repeated sleepily. "That's what it sounded like before..."

"Wolves!" Tenpou proclaimed with fervent conviction. "That's _it_! The missing element in this case; by Geroge I think we've got it Watson!"

Konzen, despite the other's obvious enthusiasm, was not impressed. "Tenpou, you've really been reading too much crap these days." he said, his face deadpan. "And who's-"

"It wasn't the Shouryin youkai. Not at all."

"Sorry, but I'm not privy to the demonology they subject you to in the Academy." Konzen snapped, pointedly shuffling his papers and poising his pen in a manner that screamed, BUSY.

_And I don't have time to deal with this now. Too much work. _

Time was ticking and for every second he sat listening to Tenpou rant, Konzen could count an added three forms to his pile of three thousand. So after a while he simply tuned out and returned to the paperwork. Signature. Seal. Next. Signature. Date. Seal. Next.

Tenpou could tell Konzen was working through a headache by the way he squinted at his papers in an attempt to focus on something other than the pain. This was the epitome of Heaven: doing the job and suffering through it, meaningless as it felt.

Could life in the Under Heaven be any different? Tenpou shook his head. From what he had read, it was just the same. Exactly the same, except for death and the unknown beyond; and it was these last two things that afforded humans the opportunity to enjoy the life they have, and not rot into an immortal oblivion.

The scratching of Konzen's pen brought him back to reality.

_The Shouryin are earth based. They hide in trees and disguise themselves as rocks, but they never make a sound before they strike. It's against their instincts as predators. But to match the battle cry with the species...I'd have to read up on it in the morning. Or maybe Zenon would know._

Konzen squinted harder. He must have an earthquake of a migraine, Tenpou observed as he rubbed his own eyes. He hadn't slept in 3 days, but he doubted he could fall asleep now. Instead Tenpou entertained his insomnia with glass after glass of alcohol. Night had draped itself over Heaven, but something akin to a black whirlpool stirred awake inside him and threatened to pull him in.

Like being turned inside out.

_What are you looking for? Are you finding it?_ The Marshal ran these questions in his mind again and again as he leisurely sipped at his wine and gazed at Konzen squinting like a blind grandpa.

"Tenpou, are you just going to sit there all night?"

"If it's no trouble."

Tenpou smiled, but his hand trembled and Konzen ignored it. Tenpou's face was gaunt and flushed from too much alcohol and too little food. But Konzen ignored that too because in heaven, anything that made you think of earthly things compelled you to turn away. But Konzen couldn't turn away from Tenpou, who resembled all too well what a dying man would look like. So he ignored the body and focused on the marshal's words.

This method, however, proved ineffective. There was an absurd hollowness to them that evoked the image of a tomb. A tomb in heaven and it was right here; living and breathing and speaking about georges, watsons, and the sound of wolves at night. One echo after another of something very dead crept into Konzen's bones, suddenly making him feel as if he were being buried alive.

"The body of a dead man is heavier than that of a live one." Konzen muttered to his documents. "You made a grave for your brother in your heart, now you seem to want to join him. Are you going to carry his murdered corpse for all eternity?"

"Konzen…"

"Well you should have left it at the door!" he lashed out. "Bring it up in a century or so. Fine. I don't care. Just not _now_!"

Finally it sunk in. This was the Konzen's first taste of death, and from the way he spoke it sounded like he would spit it out if he could.

_The only shade of red that dark in this world should be the wine we drink. I'm not surprised you're disgusted with me for having brought blood to your table. _

"I'm sorry. I forgot..."

"Only idiots apologize for that sort of thing."

"Then let me be an idiot." Tenpou shot back. "An idiot who has a small favor to ask..."

"What's that?"

"Let me stay here for the night? It's not like I have a bed to go to."

"You have a couch." Konzen countered, not looking up from his work.

_But I don't want to be alone tonight, as childish as it sounds. I'll go crazy._ "But that would mean moving all the books I placed there."

"You've got the authority to move armies and yet you won't even shove aside a couple of books?" Konzen knew full well that Tenpou was getting frustrated. He could see it in his face, the way his jaw was firmly set and how his hands curled up into fists on his lap.

The recent surge of events were like a river chipping slowly way at the banks of the man's pride until it was only a matter of a few stressed and stormy instants until the dam broke. Why Konzen decided to bring out the chisel, he didn't know. Perhaps it was a certain morbid curiosity that drove him to do it. He wanted to see Tenpou crack and reduce himself to acting human. He wanted...he didn't know what he wanted from it.

"Damn him, though." Tenpou's voice broke and he slumped over. "I _hate_ him. I know Goujun put me in charge of protect him, but it's night now. If I fall asleep…if I…I'm not in my right mind. I might kill him. I swear to God, it's taking everything I have not to strangle the bastard!"

_Gods, I'm drunk. I'm so drunk._

For days, Tenpou smiled and hid it, but it was just like Konzen and his paperwork. He suffered and did his job. But night brings strange release to those who hide behind masks. Darkness works its way into the cracks of the heart and festers. If he were less honorable man…

_If Shien had been doing his job…_

_If I had been doing mine…_

"Hey." In an unexpected gesture of sympathy, Konzen knelt in front of his friend, work left unattended.

"If revenge is what you're looking for, nobody's stopping you." Empty, consolatory words initially fell from his lips, but they evaporated into oblivion without having being heard because again, that morbid curiosity got the better of him and tempted Konzen to push the one button he should have left well alone. This is what came out.

"And you think I shouldn't be stopped? Words from the Goddess of Mercy's own kin: kill him because nobody's stopping you," Tenpou said quietly, his hand snaking around the back of the other's head. "God, Konzen, don't give me so much freedom. Do you think I haven't entertained the idea of killing a man already dead on the record? Do you think I haven't fantasized about throwing him to the youkai and throwing myself in with him? Do you think it's easy not to be corrupt?" The words flowed out faster, slurred, and angry. "It's not!" With that last utterance, Tenpou's hand seized a clump of golden hair causing Konzen to yelp in pain.

"Asshole, let-"

"I can start with him," Tenpou's voice had turned to something softer than a whisper. "But like all things go, someone else will die. The man who ordered them to the Under Heaven. Then the messenger who relayed the order. The sentry who didn't know any better. The cook who gave them rations. Goujun. Then myself. Ultimately myself. And you tell me, 'nobody's stopping you, Tenpou.' Wrong answer. _You_ are stopping me, Konzen. Do something honorable for once."

One harsh yank and Tenpou crushed their lips together. Desperation, depravity, insanity; Konzen couldn't pin a reason to Tenpou's impulse to seek physical gratification. He considered giving his friend a hardy kick in the stomach, but something told him that to turn Tenpou away now would mean turning him away forever. And forever was a long time around here.

Besides, Konzen told himself grudgingly, _I'm not beyond doing honorable things_. _Be grateful, asshole, that I'm being so fucking honorable._ By that point, his thoughts were growing cloudy. It felt nice, but it scared the hell out of him. _Fucking jerk_.

He could feel Tenpou's arms tightening around him, even when the marshal pulled away and buried his face into Konzen's neck, they never once loosened.

"Look, if you're going to fucking cry, I'm not sharing my bed."

"I must look like the epitome of pathetic." Tenpou's voice was muffled, but Konzen could still feel the smile on his skin.

"If you want to know the truth, I think the both of us are looking pretty bad right now. You're going fucking mad and as a result, I'm going to go bald. The world is definitely going to end."


	4. The Warmth of an Illusion

**

* * *

Rhapsodies in the Dark: Chapter 4**

**The Warmth of an Illusion

* * *

**

"I don't trust him! Not one bit." Takemura barked as he downed a goblet full of wine and aristocratically smeared his lips across the sleeve of his tunic. Pig. That was the first thing the other man in the room thought upon looking at the Commander of the Northern Armies. But a rich and powerful pig.

"No one ever said that Tenpou Gensui was a trustworthy man. No one ever said that he was a trusting man either. I bet the feeling is mutual."

Takemura nodded gracefully, resembling a marionette in the hands of an arthritic puppeteer. "And that General Kenren!" He drank another gulp to accentuate his hate, aristocratically spilling wine down his chin.

"Just be thankful they don't even know each other. That would be the end of things."

"I don't give a crap about that drunken slob!"

"Of course, sir." General Uraga of the Western Army agreed. After all, he was paid to agree. "With all due respect, sir, I do not believe that you called me here just to complain about my superior."

"What was that?!"

Uraga rolled his eyes. Nothing worse than a man who goes half deaf the more he gets drunk.

"WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, SIR, I WANT TO KNOW WHY the fuck," he added discreetly. "YOU GRACE ME WITH YOUR PRESENCE HERE TONIGHT!!??"

"Oh. Is that all?"

"It _is_, late sir!"

"A servant told me that he went to meet with Konzen Douji and hasn't returned since..."

Who would have thought? Uraga thought to himself, but before his mind took even one step into the gutter, Takemura's booming voice pulled him back to the shores of propriety. More or less.

"Send a man into Tenpou Gensui's room. Search for anything suspicious, but don't spend too much time on it. Just make sure to slip this into the wine bottle."

Takemura rolled a small vial across the table. The other looked at it, then at the Commander, a knot the size a glacier forming in his stomach. This was well across the line of mutiny. Would anybody fall for it? Konzen Douji would certainly argue against it and not even a hundred men had the authority to pit their political power against that of the bureaucrat's. But given the current circumstances, it might just come off as believable.

"IT'S GOING TO LOOK LIKE SUICIDE, SIR!" Just as much as he loved the idea of payoff, Uraga hated the twisted politics and under-the-table dealings he had to do to get it.

"WELL DO YOU WANT IT TO LOOK LIKE MURDER!? AND KEEP YOUR VOICE DOWN! DO YOU WANT THE ENTIRE CITY TO FIND OUT?"

"But sir..." Uraga whispered, memories of his military ethics course jabbing at his conscience.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO SUCCEED THE MAN? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR PAYOFF IS, ANYWAY?"

"Oh." Now that you put it that way…

* * *

Shien opened his eyes upon hearing the sound of jangling chains hanging over him like a vigilant ghost. Apart from the isolated resounding, the room was static and colder than when Tenpou had been here.

Ever since losing his sight, Shien gained a strange awareness surrounding the nature of things in heaven: without the façade of cherry blossoms, marble statues, manicured gardens, and bubbling fountains, heaven was how it felt now- static and cold. Or perhaps this was merely the musings of one who had spent too much time on earth where the ground locked up the heat of the sun like a precious secret and vibrated with its life even during the darkest of nights, even beneath a blanket of snow.

He thought of clinking ice when he heard the chains again, but this time they were farther away, outside the window. Despite thinking 'ice,' despite thinking 'ghost,' a furtive warmth held fast to that sound, bringing Shien to remember the soft moss clinging to the bases of Under Heaven trees. In that one hallucination,_ because surely I must be imagining this_, there pulsated more life than in all lands of heaven.

It rang again even farther away. This time he decided to follow it. His head turned towards the door. Yes, it was time to leave.

Not much of a moment after he had stepped out, Uraga had broken the lock and walked in.

_Strange_, the intruder thought, _the bed's still warm_. But he shrugged it off when an open wine bottle caught his eye. "Let's drink to my promotion, shall we? We'll give you a grand funeral, just like they give the kings of Earth."

That man…

Shien bit his lip as he silently crouched outside the window. He knew he started hating that man long before this moment. With a cleaned memory, Shien probably could have forgiven him for the past, but now he was left with new reasons to do the exact same thing.

Who was this man? Where was Tenpou? What was going to happen to him?

These questions were soaked up by the night when the chains resumed their distant serenade. While the rest of the world receded into the plane of his un-memory, Shien plunged into the darkness to follow the warmth of an illusion.

It seemed that with every step towards that warmth, a word was remembered or perhaps a face. The only thing he could do was to continue walking until he felt his feet recognize the already trodden path of what was forgotten.

* * *

The chain-link rattle Zenon had made for the child fell off the kitchen table and jolted him awake in his chair. Reaching over to pick it up, he gauged by the shortening candle that he had been asleep for only an hour or so. Beside that was a partly empty bottle of wine. The sweetest wine ever tasted in this world. The most forbidden because it was stolen from heaven. Beside that was a partly empty glass.

_"Are you sure, Zenon?" she said tentatively as she swirled the drink in her glass over and over again. "Won't we get in trouble for this?"_

They'd most likely kill you, if they found you._ "I don't care. Drink it. One hundred years with you aren't enough for me." _But I won't let that happen. Ever.__

_"The villagers will think I'm a witch...for never aging. And the child..."_

_"Then move away from the villagers."_

_"Zenon, is it because you are so afraid to be mortal with me?" her voice came in a whisper that rippled the smooth surface of the wine._

_"Does immortality frighten you?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Then 'yes' is my answer as well." Zenon ran a tired hand through his hair and sighed, plucking the glass from her hand and placing it on the table. The dry thud it made upon contact with the wood sounded like death. "Pregnant women shouldn't be drinking alcohol, anyway. Get some sleep. I just have to finish this before I go up again. There's something I have to talk to someone about." _

_"Ah yes. You needn't be so specific, Zenon. My head is starting to hurt from all the details," she joked._

A ghostly kiss at the back of his neck and she retreated into the bedroom, her careful footsteps betraying that she walked for two. The door squeaked. Got to fix that too, Zenon made a mental note for himself.

He worked for another two hours on a set of three rattles: one filled with shells, the second with pebbles, the last with chain links. Then he fell asleep. Just like that; and upon waking up he found that she had gone and made herself immortal while he wasn't watching.

They say that anything brought down to earth from heaven takes on earthly tastes, like a still pool that has no color save for that which reflects from it. But not this wine that sat here now. Zenon slowly drank the rest of the glass with a sense of peace, placing his lips at the exact spot where hers touched when she drank. It tasted better than heaven and better than earth.

Absently, he gently shook the rattle and looked into the bedroom where his wife slept. She had forgotten to close the door on her second trip to the kitchen. A cradle that had yet to be painted rocked with the entering night breeze from the open window. _Can you hear this?_ Zenon asked the unborn child. _I want you to have this so you can laugh and play and mock the gods that detest you. They'll hear the chains that bind them. They'll hate you because you'll be happy when they never were. When they still don't know how._

The world was silent as he walked away from the small house with hands stuck in his pockets and gun slung over his shoulder. Tenpou must be expecting him soon with a report. No doubt, the man was on to something if today's findings were indeed genuine.

"Who knows, I might even get paid for this," Zenon said contentedly to himself but stopped short when he heard the jangling of chains. His head snapped back towards the house. The lights were still off. "Who's there?" He was ready to shoot, but the abrasiveness of his voice caused whatever it was to run back into the bushes.

Zenon dismissed it as an escaped farm animal or a dog still on its leash.

"Gotta have fucking nerves of steel to live down here," he muttered. "How does she do it?"

* * *

The image of Kasei's face appeared in his mind as a bleary watercolor, shifting every time he blinked.

"Are you sure this is a wise thing to do?"

"Oh, I'm positive that this is stupid," Kasei's voice cut through the night air, crisp as the distant clanking chains. "But it's right. He was only a child, not like the other _itan__._ Though that's not to say that I have a clean conscience about wiping them out either. I wonder…if they're as much a threat to heaven as Uraga says they are."

Hard green eyes looked towards the dark void of the forest where they allowed the boy to escape, wrists and ankles bound by steel. "The limiting power of the diadem and chains should eliminate any threat he may pose to the local populace."

Shien said nothing, only squinted his eyes and drew his bow. In the darkness, the retreating shadow melted into its surroundings, but he could feel enough of the boy's life energy to point a poisoned arrow at it. "If what you're worried about is eliminating threats..."

"What are you doing?" Kasei cried. "What the _hell_ are you doing?"

"Eliminating the threat." As the energy signal got weaker, Shien pulled the string farther back. "What is right is not my concern. As a soldier, and as your servant, it is my obligation not to be concerned."

He let loose, but Kasei was quick to jolt the bow and the arrow went flying into the leaves.

"Kasei-sa-"

Kasei struck Shien in the face and he took it silently, without a fight. "I said, what the hell are you doing?" Kasei repeated indignantly, his lips forming a grim line on an otherwise gentle face. "You disobeyed my orders."

"Just the same. You're disobeying orders as well."

"So that gives you the right to reciprocate the favor?"

"What is right is not my concern." _Only you, _even though at that moment, Kasei was glaring at him with as much venom as he could muster, which wasn't much.

When it came to hate, the young man was like a leaky bucket. It would drain out of his system before he found any use for it, and when he finally found one, there wasn't enough hate there to create a sufficient impact. Much like a child...Though that didn't keep Shien from feeling the instant coldness that descended upon the both of them with the other's change of mood.

At that moment, a soldier ran up to meet them from behind. "Kasei-sama! Uraga Taishou has arrived. He wants to see you."

"I'll return to camp shortly," Kasei answered then turned to Shien, his voice lowering. "Whether you like it or not, Shien, it's your concern now."

Shien watched his retreating figure. The boy just didn't seem to get it. "Lie well, Kasei-sama."

He was drifting off to sleep when Kasei slipped into his tent and into his bed. Shien could feel him trembling at his back, his breathing erratic. "Shien, we have to leave camp and return. It's safer there. Tenpou will make sure that nothing happens to us. He'll make sure-"

"What happened?" Shien whispered as he turned over, only to be struck by the sight of Kasei's brused face. He grit his teeth at the smell of blood, but his voice took on a new softness and he pulled Kasei closer. "You fool. You shouldn't have let him do this to you."

"I lost my temper."

"I figured."

"And I didn't listen to you. You told me to lie well to him."

"Yes. I hope you know what I meant. I was being literal. _Very_ literal." he emphasized.

"He wasn't." Kasei clutched the front of Shien's tunic and buried his face there. "He wanted me to lie _down _for him. The bastard. I told him to go fuck himself and leave us the hell alone, but I know he won't. In the end, I acted like the kid you always said I was and signed our death warrant out of selfishness. God, I'm sorry."

"No need. With the path we chose, this was inevitable."

Shien had said nothing afterwards, only tightened his embrace around him. _You're too young for this._

It was such an easy thing to kill. Perhaps it was the fact that he was an archer and never took a life at close range. The guilt never touched him and he was blind to it due to distance. But the longer he lay like this with Kasei, the more he delighted in the fantasy of stabbing Uraga to death.

He gently stroked Kasei's face. "I'll kill him while smiling."

But none of them ever made it to first light. Before dawn even hit, they heard the cry of wolves and everything turned bloody and hellish. The sun rose, but nobody could see it.

* * *

By the time Shien had reached the gates of the holy city, all the sand in the murky pool of his memory had settled and he now had a clear picture of what he didn't want to see. Maybe it was better not to have remembered any of it. "What I fool I was…" _To have survived this long without saving a single life I cared for._

"And you're still a fucking fool, you dolt." a voice ripped through his night. "You're lucky I'm the only one here to see you be such an idiot. Otherwise all three of us'll be on the smoothest road to hell." The man paused and took a deep breath. It seemed to calm him down. "Tenpou must be looking for you."

"Ten…pou," Shien mouthed, the name suddenly sounding foreign. "You work for him?"

"Well if being blackmailed into doing what he wants is the same thing as working for him, then yeah, I work for the asshole."

The present and the past seemed to have collided into a single moment, tangling up in one confusing knot. What was recent seemed so far away and what was long gone…only too close. "Tenpou…Kasei. He's going to die. They're going to kill him."

_He's lost his mind, _Zenon concluded, scratching his nose. "He's already dead. Come on. Let me take you back to-" He reached for Shien's arm only to have his hand slapped away.

"No." _Is this what you would want me to do, Kasei?_ "Tenpou. They are going to kill _him._"

_Do you want me to save him even though I couldn't save you? I wonder if this is my punishment, protecting a man because I couldn't save the one before him. I wonder if this will be my eternal guilt._

Shien heard the click of a lighter and another intake of breath, and then smelled the scent of tobacco burning. "Well we can't let that happen, can we?" Zenon replied.

Shien shifted uncomfortably before this man's stare. Even though he couldn't see, he could feel it. He could feel it the moment the stranger closed his eyes and opened them again, as if he too were blinking with him.

"So you'll help me save him?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Zenon replied. "I'm just doing this to save myself. You should too, even though you think there's nothing much left to salvage. Tenpou, though. That's one hell of a shipwreck if I've ever seen one. We might be too late."

"You might as well start looking before you speak like that." Shien opened and closed his hands in a futile gesture, wishing he still had his own weapons. "And save those words for a time when you know that action is no longer a possibility."

* * *

Life was nice like this, sitting in the peaceful dark under the cherry blossom trees drinking good wine. Perfect wine. Where not seeing the amber of it made the taste even better. Under a perfect moon where you could smell the flowers without seeing their color.

"Now the only thing to finish off the picture would be a pretty lady," Kenren smiled to himself, but it died as quickly as it came.

Typical of him to be sitting out on a beautiful night drinking and dreaming about having great sex, but something's been bothering him as of late. Dreaming about great sex was all well and good, but dreaming about great sex with a _man_ was something totally different. A goofy-looking man who sure as hell didn't look like a soldier. It wouldn't have bothered him so much if he had kept sleeping with women after dreaming up a storm with that guy, whateverthefuck his name was. But he hadn't been at it. Not at all. And it pissed him off.

_I'm not like that._

Maybe it was just a phase he was going through.

_Yeah, that's it. A phase. _The concept seemed feasible enough. If a person's immortal, he's bound to change a little bit to keep things interesting. It's a long life after all.

Kenren took another swig and began to do some more thinking out loud. Being tipsy, things just had to be said in order to make sense. Otherwise, a potentially brilliant idea might be lost within a sea of alcohol.

"If it's a phase, then to make the phase pass, so I can start sleeping with women again…I have to pass the phase." _Good job_, _Kenren__,_ he congratulated himself. _We're getting somewhere_. "So if at the completion of the phase, I can start sleeping with women again…that's it! I've got to sleep with a man so I can sleep with women. I've got to sleep with _him!_"

"With who?"

Kenren jumped and turned. Bad idea, he told himself as he fought the urge to just pick up and run fast as hell. It was The Guy. Kenren would have died right where he stood because there...

No, right _here_, he was standing with the very guy he said (out loud) that he was going to screw. Suddenly, his face felt hot. He wasn't imagining it. It was dark and he couldn't see him too well, but one thing stood out clear as the moon: this guy smelled like sex and by the way he was smirking in the shadows, it was obvious that he had it good. And the simply the thought of it made him hard. _Just a phase.__ Just a fucking phase._

"With…uh…" _Oh, fuck it all_. "You! I'm gonna sleep with you."

"You can't be serious." Tenpou smiled, but he warily took a step back. "Besides, my bed's already occupied."

"I'm dead serious. If I don't sleep with _you-_"

"Surely I can't be that special. Look, let me help you out. Walk up the hill. There's a nice lady looking a bit lonely sitting in the garden. Sleep with her."

Kenren thought about it for a moment. It might just work, skipping the guy altogether and going straight for the woman. With a little more wine, it might just work. "Fine." But something still bothered him. "I'll do it, but…uh…Don't ask me to explain anything, okay? It's just that I need a favor."

"I'm not one to issue favors so easily," Tenpou started, but seeing that look in the other man's eyes, he couldn't help but relent. Something about turning him away bothered him, but he was too tired to search for an explanation. There were more urgent matters that needed explaining. "What is it that you want?"

"Just let me kiss you first." If he was going to pass through the phase, he was going to at least get something from it, dammit. "Shit, I swear after this I'll act like we never even met. I never saw you in the infirmary and I sure as hell didn't see you trying to kidn-"

"That was you, wasn't it?" He sounded thoughtful. "Very well then. One kiss. If this is what you want in return for your aid, then I'll happily give. Besides, I hate owing anybody anything. After this, try not to find me…again." That last word was practically lost as Kenren pulled close, leaning down to kiss him with so much of a sweet slowness that it seemed to be his last kiss ever. As if death were waiting for them both once they pulled apart to take a breath.

But Kenren kept his end of the bargain and kept it at one kiss. He wasn't satisfied, but he stepped back anyway and wordlessly left to seek less impressive pastures. "Fuck," he muttered. "That's not going to get me past anything."

Tenpou watched him until he was out of sight and breathed in deeply. It really was a beautiful night tonight. And for once, it felt like something was stirring beneath Heaven's skin. It was dark and it moved quietly. But it still moved. He smiled at the thought.

* * *

It was dawn when Konzen woke up to a servant frantically pounding on his door.

"Go the hell away!" he barked, burying his face in the pillows. _Stupid Tenpou_. His mind wasn't capable of creating more elaborate epithets, given the early hour. _I'll kick his ass when I'm really awake._ The pounding resumed. "WHAT THE FUCK?! Whatever it is, I'm not opening the door. Can't it wait?"

"No, Konzen-sama. My humblest apologies, but it's urgent!"

"Fine. Just tell me from there!"

The knocking stopped with Konzen's command, but the servant no longer shouted. His voice crept through the cracks of the wooden door, but went no further.

"What was that?" Konzen said, biting his lip. He didn't just hear…

"I said…" The servant's whisper seemed to suck all the air from the room, through the door cracks and into the cold hallway. "Tenpou Gensui is dead. They found his body only minutes ago. The marshal killed himself…"


	5. No Heroes

Rhapsodies in the Dark 

Chapter 5: No heroes

The air on that day of mourning was thick with incense burning from every window in the holy city. Tenpou was beyond sight. Was beyond hearing, and the inhabitants of Heaven lit their matches for the marshal with hopes that his disembodied and blind soul would carry with him the scent of heaven, momentarily, until becoming diluted to the point of non-existence by the engulfing squall of reincarnation. Until the soul would remember it no more.

The path back to the gates of the holy city was as thin and beguiling as a whisper of smoke, _but if he doesn't come back, I'll kill him. _

After hours of holding himself prisoner within his own room, Konzen had crept out and snuck into Tenpou's, flinging himself on the bed and falling asleep at the same spot where soldiers found Tenpou's body.

_Come back so I can kill you, bastard._

Elsewhere, there was one window where no incense burned.

"It's preposterous, the honors that boy gets," grit Commander Takemura of the Northern Armies between clenched teeth as he walked out of his living quarters and into the gardens. With narrow, dark eyes, a build better suited for a bear and a face to match, Takemura had the air of a man who was born to hate. And hate he did.

He despised all of Heaven's absurdities. Tenpou Gensui was a genuine mental absurdity, and it was just as well that he had breathed his last. But the marshal was merely coincidental. One man in a million. The _itan_, however, was a different matter altogether. They were true, _consistent,_ absurdities and it escaped him how children of diluted blood could grow to be more powerful than the genuine article, a _real_ celestial.

The thought unnerved him. It was a nightmare really, of Heaven's apocalypse. That the itan, physically superior regardless of mortality, would take the place the immortals and the land he now tread would become a disgusting replica of Under Heaven. He wouldn't have it. Heaven did not need a Toushin Taishi. Heaven and the lands below needed no itan.

Speaking of other absurdities… 

Commander Takemura thought it might be a good idea to pay a visit to the body. It was in Goujun's care, was it not?

Little did he expect the dragon king to outright reject his humble request to pay his respects. Little did he expect Goujun to shed his shell of formality simply to be rude.

"It will not kill you to wait until the funeral, will it? Find an ugly woman to amuse you until then." And he was quickly met with a door slammed in his face.

* * *

"Blubbering fool," muttered Goujun, turning from the door and moving to stand quietly over Tenpou's body. It was laid out on a platform in Goujun's own quarters where he would hold an overnight vigil until the funeral.

_Keep close watch over him, Goujun-sama_, said the fiery-haired soldier who brought the body. _Or else they might cremate him behind your back. _

Something about those words settled over him like snow between his scales, and the longer he thought about them, the colder he felt. And that smile on the soldier's lips; the instant he saw it, Goujun sent out all the servants who were summoned to perform the funeral cleansing rites. _I will have no one else touch him._ So then he, Commander of the Western Army and Dragon King of the Western Sea, committed himself to an orderly's tasks of bathing and dressing his dead subordinate.

Goujun did so with a mechanical continuity fitting for a soldier and a creature of his breed, but a there was a single thought that corroded the gears of his mind and drove him to rush through the rites before he lost himself.

The setting sun reached the space of the window just as he was tying the last knots of Tenpou's outer funeral robe. He blinked. Light filtered through the sheer curtains and painted Tenpou's skin the color of blood. It was enough. And in his grief, Goujun bent down to kiss the skin of the exposed chest, and rested his forehead there. It was a farewell he could dispense only to one of his own kind, but to deny this to his marshal felt like one sin too many.

Goujun sensed the heat of his own exhalation return to his mouth. He closed his eyes, whispered a short prayer, and pressed his lips to Tenpou's chest once more. Only he did not expect to feel a heartbeat. But it was there, steady and getting stronger. Color was returning to his lips and face.

He snapped back. "What in the world…"

Nothing made any sense anymore. The sun was setting and it was getting dark. Time moved forward for the rest of Heaven, but here in this room it had reversed completely. As if everything that Tenpou touched changed in nature. A mad wind disturbed the curtains and flung open the shutters, causing the papers on his desk to chaotically fly about the room like frantic doves. __

_To die without achieving your goals is a dog's death, but there is no shame in it. _

The dead man's chest started to rise. Started to fall.

_But you are too stubborn to accept even that. That is why I will allow no one else to be my marshal._

Gently, Goujun moved Tenpou from the funeral platform to the bed in his sleeping chambers. "Wake up quickly, Tenpou Gensui. Your men are waiting for you."

* * *

That night, Takemura stalked into one courtyard after another in pursuit of his thoughts. His brief encounter with Goujun rattled his nerves. Such a bloody stare would be enough to yank a normal man's soul from his body. It was disgusting and he cursed himself for not planning Goujun's death as well. Make it look like a lover's suicide, maybe? Both were brought to grief at the impossibility of romantic relations between superior and subordinate…it _might_ be feasible, though a bit too far fetched. There would be those who would argue against it, nevertheless- Takemura's stride and thoughts halted. A light still shone from the dead marshal's quarters.

He backtracked and looked inside, his eyes narrowing suspiciously as he scanned the room, only to find a certain blonde noble clinging to the sheets like a grieving wife. Womanish and beautiful. And graceful and every inch a celestial- the way a perfect heaven should be. Except…Takemura amended…except for Konzen's desire to be taken by a man who threatened his very existence; a very absurd, erratic, and very dead man.

But that could be changed. It was a wrong that Takemura himself would now amend, just as he strove to amend the little absurdities that plagued the world every now and then. It almost felt heroic.

Not far behind him, Zenon looked on for a while longer before turning on his heel and heading towards Goujun's room. "The bastard better be awake."

_"How did you know not to drink the wine?" Shien had asked when the two of them found Tenpou back in his room the night before. The marshal was alive. Gargling water, but very much alive._

_"I didn't. When I realized it was Under Heaven tavern wine, I spat it out. The stuff tastes like poison."_

_"It's an acquired taste." he and Zenon replied simultaneously._

_"Hm." Tenpou smiled sadly and sunk to his knees. "I don't think I'll live long enough to get used to it. Some of it went down my throat. I think. I can feel its effects now…but maybe I didn't drink enough to kill me. That's what I'm hoping."_

_"Then keep hoping," Zenon said as he helped Tenpou onto the bed. "If you want to live, then you'll live. If you want to die, then you'll die…Shien, where are you going?" _

_"There is something I wish to attend to. Take care of yourself, Tenpou. Please accept my apologies for being…an unnecessary burden on you. I will return shortly, perhaps. If it is within my power to do so, I will return to your service."_

_"If you want to return, you will. If I want to live, I will," the Marshal said between coughs. "Let's hope the two of us make the right decisions."_

* * *

The cold air blown from the mountaintops froze the backs of Heaven's Western Army and their new marshal. Not long after Tenpou's body was discovered were they called down to the Under Heaven to suppress a massive youkai onslaught. Despite discouraged men, despite the fact that they were given less than a day of mourning, despite the unanimous, unspoken dislike for the former general, five regiments of Tenpou's men hauled their weapons down to earth in order to fight off their grief.

But they couldn't even get that done.

"They aren't attacking…Marshal," reluctantly commented a soldier as he surveyed the low dip of foothills where a swarm of youkai seemed to hover back and forth. Back and forth like tree branches in a black wind.

Uraga spat. "I can see that." And he knew very well why they weren't attacking. "Give me an assessment of the damage."

"They've raided a village at the base of Mt. Reishin. But we haven't been able to get close enough to make a body count."

"Do you have any idea as to the breed?"

"None sir, but we're checking the books. Youkai of this nature haven't been around for over four hundred years…"

"I see." Not too far in the distance, just close enough so he could see the gory details of mortality, was a human head, courtesy of the youkai who were looking to make a point. _This will be you. Soon. Kami. _Uraga shuddered. "Just don't give up your sword for the books. Look where that philosophy carried the last marshal."

"Yes sir." But Uraga could hear the lack of confidence in the young man's voice.

However eccentric Tenpou was, he certainly commanded the respect of his men. Their hearts have darkened considerably, but it didn't matter anymore. They would learn to serve a new master. Such was the way of the military: efficient, strong, and immortal. Where one head got severed, another would grow. Yes, Tenpou was replaceable.

"Kami!" hissed a voice from the clan of youkai, low and piercing. Hundreds of hungry eyes looked up at them and this voice seemed to speak what those eyes were saying. "Let me speak to the kami! Damn you come out, you coward of a god! We did as you asked! You who woke us from our five hundred year sleep. We killed those you wanted us to kill. In return for our castle- which you kami took from us five hundred years ago-we agreed to your terms, now you agree to ours. Give us back our castle!"

At this, a disturbed murmur instantly swept through the ranks like a row of dominoes causing Uraga to sweat. If he let the youkai speak, his cover was gone.

"Whom are they referring to, Marshal?" inquired his second lieutenant.

"Hell if I know," Uraga bit out. _Enough of this. I'm not falling. I'm not getting caught._ "They're trying to lead us astray. Don't weaken your minds! Load your guns and be sure to pump in enough tranquilizer to make them sleep into the next century!"

"But sir, they seem willing to speak. Perhaps might accept a compr-"

"There is no such thing as compromise with brutes! We will attack at my command!" he shouted out over his troops with hopes that this promise of a battle would rip the men from their doubts.

Little did he know that a voice of dissent would ricochet back at him.

"We will not."

Uraga's face went red. "Who dares-" But he went no further once he saw the source of this preposterous insubordination. _Impossible…_

"Your orders will not be followed," repeated Shien as he walked forward. He heard the rustling of cloth and metal as soldiers moved out of his way. Shien's clothing was shabby, his body covered with bandages. He was weak, and must have been a pitiful sight.

_But what does it matter when it is a self I cannot see? I can hear my words. I can hear his words. My body can act and I know that is enough for now. _

Shien's voice was like a sword sheathed with silk. "Your orders will_ never _be followed. I accuse you of high treason. Of insubordination. Of awakening and conspiring with a youkai clan towards the destruction of Major Yoshitsune and his men when they refused to shed itan blood at _your_ command. Of breaking heaven's high law of purity. Of _attempted_ murder of a direct superior-" Shien paused and let his words sink in before speaking once again, quieter this time. "Tenpou Gensui is alive. And he is fully informed of your disloyalty."

"That's a lie!" Uraga was quick to defend himself. "You speak out of turn. Somebody put him in chains until he is brought to court."

Nobody moved. Nobody said a word.

Never in his life had Shien even thought of disobeying orders. And to do it in front of an entire army…he knew he would never have this courage again.

Uraga was unsheathing his sword. He could hear the polished blade slide cleanly out of its scabbard. "I'm sure…" Uraga heaved. "…Tentei would have mercy on me if, just this once, I take justice into my own hands."

Everything around him seemed to become still, as if the seconds were fighting this very event from happening. But time is as it is, and it is just the same for kami as it is for youkai and humans. Nothing moves backwards save for the pulling movement of a bow. And that is what it felt like now. That moment between pointing and shooting. It is a moment of both total freedom and total slavery, where one reaches the absolute balance between action and consequence, destiny and free will.

Shien felt that it would be his fate to live like this forever. It was a sure punishment, but one he would gladly suffer.

Uraga charged. Shien wondered if it was possible to say that he could feel the arc of the sword. It sliced through the air with the crudeness of a butcher and not the refinement of a soldier. If it were possible to say that that the sword was loud, he would have said it even though nobody would have understood him. So Shien merely sidestepped the attack and allowed Uraga to sway forward before taking advantage of the broken balance.

He estimated his distance before kneeing the man in the stomach. The sword fell to the ground, but before the former general followed, Shien roughly grabbed his collar and dragged him through the ranks.

"Take him!" Shien shouted as he pushed Uraga down the hill to where the youkai lay in waiting. "Did he forget to tell you that your castle has already been destroyed?"

"No…no!" It must have been a pitiful sight: Uraga trying to climb out of the grave he dug for himself. Shien was glad he couldn't see it. "It's a lie. That man's lying! It wasn't me! Commander Takemura _forced_ me to do-I'll give you your castle, if you just let me-"

Shien repeated Uraga's haughty words. "I think Tentei will have mercy on me if, just this once, I take justice into my own hands. Just be thankful I decided to leave you in the company of kinder executioners than myself."

Then he turned to the troops. "I will not begrudge anybody who wishes to save this man. I will not begrudge anybody who wishes to accuse me of breaking holy law. You would be doing your duty. I have done mine."

Nobody moved.

Nobody spoke.

And in the distance were Uraga's disgraceful cries, easily forgotten.

* * *

From the way that Konzen struggled, one would say that he looked as if he were drowning. Kicking, holding his breath, clawing at the air and meeting no hand to pull him out of this mess.

Pretend like your dying, that's what he told himself. It felt more consoling than the idea of being raped on Tenpou's bed by a stranger.

"Getthefuckoffmeyoupervertedasshole!" he managed in one breath when Takemura's mouth left his lips to lay claim to the skin of his neck where he bit. Hard. "Agh! Fucking vampire, are you deaf?! Get off. Murderous bastard." Konzen put as much venom in those last words as he could muster, but was silenced with a strike to the face and gut.

"Prove it," the man taunted in his ear. The stench of strong alcohol sank into the covers and Konzen knew that if he got out of this alive, the first thing he would do would be to burn the sheets. Throwing himself into the fire with them didn't seem like such a bad idea right now, but then again, very few things seemed like a bad idea given his situation. "Prove that I'm a murderer. You can't, pretty one, can you?"

The weight above him shifted, making it more difficult to move. _Something_ jabbed at his thigh, but he preferred not to think about what it was. Konzen did a quick mental assessment of how shitty his day was.

Tenpou died. All his investigations were closed. It took a _second _for them to replace him. Konzen hadn't slept. Hadn't eaten. And now he was going to be raped by a raging drunk. No witnesses.

At least their clothes were still on. _Count your blessings…_

Konzen sqeezed his eyes shut when Takemura reached under his tunic and began tugging at his trousers.

"Pretty one like a pure heaven," the man ranted, his breathing becoming ragged. "Spread just a little bit for me-"

God, this is it… 

But something like thunder stopped the man above him from continuing further. Beside Konzen's head, in the wall behind him, was a bullet hole made with a real bullet, not one of those standard issue tranquilizer darts issued by the military. The bed shook, or maybe it was the stranger. Hell, even Konzen shook.

And a tone like ice. "The next one won't miss." Konzen heard the click of a gun. He saw the barrel of it aimed right at the back of the man's head and behind the gun was a furious Tenpou.

"Keep touching him and I pull the trigger. Move for your weapon and I pull the trigger. Speak and I pull the trigger. I'll be sentenced to death, but believe me when I say I'll die satisfied this time. I'm not a man after rewards, Takemura. You're thinking of bribing me, aren't you? Too bad. The only thing I want back, I can't have back. In any case, what little I want, I already have and I intend to keep it. And if keeping it means blowing your head off, I will, but not before I rip out your balls. Am I clear?"

Takemura nodded.

"Good. You're being cooperative." Tenpou turned towards the open doorway. "Zenon, please take him from me and bring this matter to Goujun. I'm afraid I'll kill him myself if I keep looking at him."

He gently shooed Konzen off the bed and proceeded to yank off the sheets. "Wait for me in my study. I'll be with you shortly. Make tea. And get something to eat while you're at it. You look half dead," he said, the coldness melting from his voice into the Tenpou that he always knew.

Konzen wordlessly complied and stepped out of the room, but not before reaching out to touch his friend's hand. He felt the warmth there and was content with the knowledge.

"As if Goujun would be any nicer," replied Zenon as he placed shackles on the Commander's wrists and hauled him to his feet. "And don't think you'll get much of a trial, asshole. Uraga ratted you out. I think a whole army of witnesses will be enough to make you want to be pissing through your toes when this is all over."

"Well, what do you say about divine justice now?"

"I still don't like it. There are some things I'd still rather do with my own hands."

Tenpou scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "For the record, soldier, I never heard you say that. I never said 'thank you,' either. Just for the record."

"Just for the record, Marshal, I was on inventory duty for the past week."

"This case might get you a promotion. How can I elevate your rank if the only thing you've been doing was counting weapons in the warehouses?"

"Well," Zenon grinned mischievously, making his way out the door, prisoner in tow, "I can count really _really_ well. But just the same, what I want, I already have. So as long as you don't take that away from me, I am content to keep serving you, Marshal."

* * *

When Tenpou entered his study, he found Konzen sitting at his desk. He sat there silently, a hunched figure in the darkness; and through Tenpou's tired eyes it seemed as if Konzen's shadow had been ripped from its owner and placed here. There was no sunshine. There was no gold. A shadow, and that was it.

He reached to turn on the lamp.

"Leave it off," Konzen ordered. "I want it off. I'm not in the mood to look at you right now, asshole. I might want to kill you for that stunt you pulled."

Tenpou made to ignore the request, but thought better of it and settled himself on the couch, fishing for that packet of cigarettes, which, if he remembered correctly, were wedged somewhere between the pillows. _Ah, there you are._ He knew well enough that Konzen didn't want to be looked at. Having been touched enough tonight, the god must have been desperate for what space that the senses would allow him. And darkness was an infinite space.

Or infinite confinement… 

"So?"

"So what?" said Tenpou, lighting the bent cigarette and breathing in deeply.

"Talk, fool."

"What's there to say?"

"I don't know. Just say something. Just keep talking." Konzen grumbled. "You're good at that, aren't you?"

"Guilty as charged," Tenpou replied, smiling and knowing that Konzen could hear it in his voice, if not see it with his eyes. _What a scrupulously illogical man, to blatantly want me both alive and dead, to want both infinite distance and unbroken closeness... _

"I suppose I could rattle off my schedule for the next week if you're so disposed to hear my worthless one-way chatter."

"Whatever."

"I need to inform everyone that I'm still alive. That's the first thing on my list. The trial, which I hope to take care of as soon as possible. Then there's the matter of Shien. I will have to speak to Goujun about a pardon-"

"Don't do that ever again, without telling me," Konzen interrupted him curtly. "Don't _ever_ do that again without telling me! I don't care if it was within your control or not. If you're going to die, let me fucking know first. Because…" He choked up. "Fuck, I just have this bad feeling that…"

"The next one won't miss, right?" Tenpou finished.

Konzen didn't answer.

Behind him, a slow dawn was rising behind the curtains. It was a new day, but it felt strangely heavy with the events of the past, like a bucket of water ready to overflow at the brim. They both felt it. Destiny was ready for a purging and it sought empty darknesses to flood, empty hearts to submerge with a sense of what life truly is, even if it meant knowing death.

"The we'll give them a run for their money before we fall, I guess." Tenpou looked to Konzen for a reaction, but found none. They sat in silence, similar to the silences they had shared many nights before.

"Tenpou."

"Yes?"

"Just make sure that it's worth it."

"If we're running for it, then I'm sure it is." He stubbed out his cigarette in a nearby ashtray and the glow of burning ash gave way to the light of the morning sun. "As long as we never forget what we're running towards, I think we're good. We won't be heroes, but we won't feel so much like dogs, either. I think that's a good thing."


End file.
